[HPforGrownups] Why did the founders retain Slytherin's house?

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 117862

Allen wrote:
>I believe that the primary reason the remaining founders kept the
>Slytherin house was a combination of political and practical
>convienence.  Consider the immediate issues of closing the house once
>Salazar left:

>I)   What to do if Salazar returned? The possibility for a
>II)  What to do with the students in the Slytherin house?  After
>III) How do you reprogram the Sorting Hat?  The Hat's songs imply, if

>When you consider these issues from the founder's prespective versus
>some future events that they would have no knowledge of, it seems
>quite reasonable that they kept the Slytherin house around.

There are other possibilities too. I've argued elsewhere that possibly
Slytherin withdrew from Hogwarts because the reality of teaching Muggleborn
children was far outwith the original concept that the Founders had had of a
school that would advance, widen and deepen the level of wizarding
knowledge. Instead, most of their efforts were going into teaching peasant
born children the absolute basics of how to wield a wand and the uses of
fleabane. So he got fed up and pulled out, leaving his Basilisk behind him
to guard the whatever it is in the Chamber of Secrets (perhaps his collected
notes, writings, magical tools and devices, prophecies, whatever your
imagination might want to put there).

Perhaps, also, the ethos of Slytherin House was different from what it is
today. Posters have often wondered about the picture that the Sorting Hat
draws and the fact that Halfblood Tom Riddle was sorted in, and how that
fits with today's one-dimensional crew of purista thugs. Have things changed
over the years? Did the Voldemort years cause the change? Was it even
earlier, under the influence of another Dark wizard? Does it date from Tom
Riddle's own time, and the cause that he began?

Cheers

Ffred

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